Hunter Moon S: Steel Dawn
by Neverwhere Chaos Mode
Summary: Ho Ho Ho! It's an update! Sequel to Hunter Moon R. What starts out as a notsoroutine mission leaves X and others stranded in a dimension he thought he'd left behind for good. 1000 years into the future.
1. Leave Taking

Nothing else was really clicking, so I thought I'd write it anyways. Let's see how many of you notice this is even posted.

* * *

A bright flash of light opened into a stunning vortex of color, and a Landchaser burst through, carrying its rider and belongings through to the other side. The blue armored reploid leveled a small flat device at the portal and activated it. A column of flame burst through the vortex before it collapsed in on itself. 

The legendary progenitor of the Reploid race crushed the device in his hand, then dropped the pieces. And blasted the remains with his buster. He sighed and looked up at the night sky. "Well, that's the end of it…"

He focused then, and rode off into the night. Someone was bound to have picked up the disturbance, and he didn't want to be there if Mavericks showed up first.

It was time to go home.

* * *

By the time X was approaching Maverick Hunter Headquarters, his signal had already been picked up by the satellites orbiting the still half dead planet, and there was an excited buzz in the courtyard as he approached. 

It quieted as he rode in, and stopped before Signas and Zero. Signas nodded, keeping with the formality of the situation. "Hunter X, mission debriefing at oh seven hundred tomorrow." Then he actually let himself smile a little. "Good to see you home, X."

X nodded, not trusting himself to say anything after the events of the past couple of weeks. Signas straightened. "Dismissed!"

The hunters in the courtyard dispersed, and X was immediately pulled off the Landchaser and into a bear hug by Zero. "It's fantastic to see you back, buddy! What do you day we go out and celebrate, eh?"

X groaned in response. "Maybe after the debriefing tomorrow. I'd like my head still in one piece by the time I get to Signas."

Zero sighed theatrically. "What am I going to do with you, X? Oh well, it's not like you're as hide bound as Signas himself. Still, we can go up and crash in one of the rec rooms for a bit."

X shook his head, and smiled sadly. "Sure, why not? I could use a distraction."

Zero's grin was infectious. "That's the spirit, come on!"

X followed slowly behind his friend, smiling a little in spite of himself. The crossed the threshold of the door into the rec room itself, and X froze upon what he saw. "Alia…"

Zero beamed. "Surprise!"

X stiffened, every circuit in his body screaming for him lash out, to destroy the image before him. He stood still, but Zero continued without concern. "A little after you left, we got a good tip and barged what was supposed to be a warehouse, but turned out to be a maverick holding facility. We found Alia, and a bunch of other reploids, being held there against their will. They were being kept as chips though, so…"

X nodded absently, finally forcing down the urge to open fire on Alia. "I see."

That was all he said before storming out of the room.

* * *

Years have passed since Mega Man X made his trip to the alien dimension he was almost ready to call home. 

X reported on his mission faithfully, but with one deliberate error. He made no mention whatsoever of the second Alia on the other side. Which one had been real? He could not answer that question, so he left it to fate, and kept a shrewd eye on the spotter.

While the seventh Maverick uprising was a close thing, it was averted, the legendary Hunter wallowing in his deep depression for much of the war before shaking it off, helping Zero and their new ally, Axl, end it.

The eighth Maverick rebellion was won as well, but not without cost.

* * *

X, still holding Axl's unconscious form, turned to Zero, who was just getting off the link with Layer. "Zero… did anything about that seem odd to you?" 

The red hunter blinked. "Huh? What do you mean, X?"

X narrowed his eyes. "It's just… who knows. Maybe I'm being paranoid."

Zero shook his head. "X, you need to trust your instincts. What's wrong?"

"You're going to think I'm crazy. It's just… up there on the moon, while we were in the radio black out… did anything about that black out seem funny to you?"

Zero shrugged. "Not really." But his eyes narrowed. "Now spill it. What did _you_ notice?"

X looked over at him. "We might not have been in contact with the surface, but we could still radio each other."

Zero shrugged. "So? Maybe it was a shield, just affecting things that were still outside?"

X sighed. "Yeah, maybe… but isn't it easier to simply use one that covers a field and have troops with descramblers? Not to mention what they could have done to us if we weren't able to coordinate our strikes? Not to mention the effort it takes to block comm traffic like that these days?"

Zero looked at X with a faintly disturbed look on his face. "Yeah, so…?"

X shook his head. "It… may be nothing. Promise you won't say anything for now. Let me look into a few things when we get back."

"What do we tell Signas?"

"The truth… as far as it goes. I'd rather leave my suspicions out of it until I've got proof."

Zero snorted. "That's easy enough. You haven't even told me what you suspect."

X had a faintly haunted look in his eyes as he readjusted his grip on Axl. "That might be for the best."

* * *

X looked up from his screen, a tired and haggard visage on his face. _I hate being right._

He saved all the evidence to a hard disk and concealed it in his armor before walking out the door.

He hadn't seen any of the three navigators as he walked towards Signas's office, which disturbed him. He usually ran into at least one of them whenever he wandered these halls. He shook it off though, and entered Signas's office.

Signas gave him a brief smile as he looked up from the terminal where he was doing his paperwork. He motioned for X to take a seat.

X sat, as expected of him, and waited patiently for Signas to finish. He did not wait long. Signas finished and closed out before turning his attention to his subordinate. "What can I do for you X?"

X grimaced and handed over the disk without saying anything. After taking a few moments to review the data, Signas looked back up at X. "You're certain about this?"

"Yes."

Signas sighed. "Great. Alright. Do what you have to, X. As of this moment Alia, Palette, and Layer are considered mavericks. Bring them in hunter."

X gave a short nod.

* * *

Despite their best efforts, however, they found nothing. 

The Gigantis Island Incident, as it was later known, solidified X back into the roll of the Hunter he once was.

But, nothing can stay peaceful forever, and the cogs of fate began to move once more.

* * *

Hunter Moon S: Steel Dawn 

Prologue – Leave Taking

* * *

She frowned. 

"What exactly are you trying to say here? I thought I'd been hired for a _job_."

The man across the desk from her, seemingly human for all intents and purposes, smiled. "You _have_. I was just refreshing your memory."

"Well, I _was_ there, so can we skip the preamble?"

He nodded. "Of course. Well, the point of all this is… if the one near the end was a copy, doesn't that mean there had to be one to copy _from_?"

Her eyes widened a bit, understanding the implications immediately. "So you think it's possible…?"

"For salvage? Yes. I think it's quite possible. How much? Who can tell? But the problem is the probable location of the necessary… ingredients, let's call them."

She nodded slowly. "I get it now… and how much are you willing to pay for this?"

"Helping an old friend isn't enough for you?"

She grinned. "Business is business."

He laughed. "Fair enough. But don't disappear once this job's done. I may need other favors."

She relaxed back into her seat and grinned at the man across from her. "I'm all about lending favors. For a price."

He smiled again, and the haggling began.

* * *

Professor Gaudile jumped up and down and did handsprings across the room. 

Something that is quite disturbing to see a robotic platypus do.

But the Professor was understandably excited. That not withstanding, Cinnamon was quite embarrassed that the professor was doing that with guests over at the lab. Even if the guest was their old friend X, and even if a detailed scan of X was the cause of the professor's joy. It just… wasn't right.

"Professor!"

Dr. Gaudile grinned, as much as was possible for him, and ignored her as he cavorted around the room. Settling himself, he began babbling. "I don't think any of us have anywhere near the sheer genius Dr. Light had in his day. I mean, look at you, you're the prototype, and you're _still_ the bleeding edge of technology! It's fantastic… the applications and derivatives of something like this are inconceivable. I mean-"

X chose to cut him off. "All I need is a workable process Professor. The sooner the better."

The Professor stopped in his ranting, slightly puzzled. "I'm sure it won't take me _that_ long to complete my research, X, but why the urgency?"

X sighed. "You catch the news feeds yet?"

Gaudile nodded. "Yes, yes. Nasty business, that."

"And the process, Professor?"

"Well, I won't lie to you, X. It'll be tricky. I'll have to build another force metal generator to do it. It's still Supra-Force Metal we're talking about here, and I don't want to know what it could do to Cinnamon if she tried to make it."

"I'm willing to take the risk for this, Professor."

"I'm sure you are my dear, but if I can just make another, not attached to a reploid, there's no reason to endanger yourself for nothing."

She nodded. "You're right, Professor."

Professor Gaudile sighed. "You're still very innocent, Cinnamon. Try to remember that not every decision I've made has been a good one."

She nodded again.

* * *

Months Later: 

Zero, the once proud Maverick Hunter, walked slowly down the corridor, none of his usual cockiness in evidence as he did so. He closed his eyes in remembrance of what had just taken place just yesterday.

…_honorable years of service…_

…_primary host…_

…_countless lives lost…_

He had stood before the judge presiding over his case.

It was what he had feared for the longest time, his past coming to light. Wily's son. Built to fight and destroy X, to take in and spread the original Maverick virus. Never mind that said virus had found a new host that didn't rebel against it, _he_ was the primary carrier, therefore it was _his_ fault so many people had died. _Stupid paranoid idiots._

People were frightened. He supposed it was only natural for them to be so; only about ten percent of the planet was hospitable now, despite the best efforts by the mechanaloids that worked round the clock to repair the environment. There hadn't been hide nor hair of Sigma for some time, the Gigantos Island Incident having cleared the field of Mavericks for what seemed like good. And to have another high-level Hunter with Maverick potential… they panicked.

They were panicked because there was nowhere they could go if he _had_ been one.

They needed a scapegoat, and they'd found one. Zero didn't know where they'd dug up the information, luck, too much digging, some dissatisfied Sigma lackey, he didn't know. It didn't matter in any case.

His years of service and the pleas of his friends, even Marino had come in from wherever she had been hiding herself to testify on his behalf, were good for _something_ at least. He'd been downgraded from military execution to this.

Exile.

The double thick blast doors opened in front of him, and he shielded his eyes momentarily from the sun and the winds, which carried sand particles towards him.

"Great."

* * *

Three days later, later Zero was still walking through the sands. It wasn't like he had anything better to do. 

He stopped suddenly.

He was unarmed and in the middle of featureless desert, but still… something was off. He spun suddenly, and struck out with a fist, catching his invisible shadow across the face.

He became visible as he hit the ground. Zero's face whitened and he took a step back as he recognized the reploid. "You!"

He laughed and sprang to his feet. "What? No greeting for an old friend?"

"You are _not_ my friend, traitor!"

The man shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. But, I played the hand I was dealt. I lost. It happens. Luckily I have friends in high places who decided I was worth a second chance. They decided the same for you."

Zero growled.

"I'm not going _anywhere_ with you!"

He sighed, and adjusted his hat. "Too bad. Too bad you don't have a choice either."

Zero fell into a combat stance, hoping that he could get out of this situation without permanent injury. "Let me guess, it's one of those accept or die propositions, right?"

He shook his head. "Sorry to disappoint you, but the bounty on your head is only if we bring you back alive."

Zero growled. "You're not taking me without a fight."

The man smiled. "Wouldn't dream of it."

Zero paused. "Wait… we?"

A beam knife fell across his throat then, and a feminine voice filled his ear. One he recognized. "Sorry, but you _are_ coming in. Like it or not. Your life worth it, soldier boy?" Then she hit him across the back of the head, hard enough to stun him. The man whipped out a gun and fired, sending a purple energy washing through Zero's body, knocking him out.

A truck zoomed up then, and they carried him into the back. The woman grinned and hopped into the back with the Zero, while the man jumped into the cab. He turned to the portly green driver. "Target acquired. Hit it."

The truck sped off.

* * *

Signas looked at X, quite serious in his bearing. "The former Maverick Hunter known as Zero has disappeared." 

"Really? Fascinating." Axl stated dryly. "I thought that's what they had in mind when they said 'exile'."

X and Signas ignored him. X spoke. "Hunting down Zero won't be an easy task, Commander."

"That's why I sent for you. You're the best and you know the target."

X nodded. "I'd like Hunter Massimo to accompany us as well."

Signas paused here, then started up again. "A rookie Hunter? That is highly irregular, X… but considering he went through the Gigantos Island Incident with you, I suppose he's experienced enough. Very well, done.

"This," Signas stated motioning to the papers on the desk they sat around, "is all the information we have on the uprising Zero's staged.

"Somehow, he, along with several confederates, willing or not, including our own mechanic, Douglas, has completely taken over Gaudile's laboratory."

"What!" Axl spluttered. "There's no _way_ Zero would do something like that."

Signas gave a glare. "This is real life Axl, live with it." He readdressed X. "Your task, along with your fellow hunters, is to infiltrate the laboratory, and remove Zero from the equation at any cost. Do you understand me, X?"

X nodded. "Perfectly, sir. Let's go, Axl. We'll collect Massimo and move in on the base immediately."

Axl was gaping wide eyed at the two in horror. He scrambled out the door with X. "You… you can't really believe that, can you?"

X shook his head. "Of course not. But what you haven't gotten the knack of yet is reading between the lines, Axl. Signas's, and by extension, ours as well, hands are tied by the law."

"But… this is _Zero_, man."

X nodded. "I know. But this is our job. And it's a job we have to do. Go get Massimo while I go get something out of storage. We'll brief him in flight. I'll meet you in hanger nine."

Axl looked down. "X… I think I might quit over this."

X grimaced. "Save it until after the mission, Axl. If you do it now, you take down all of Hunter Command with you." Then he sighed. "Axl, do you trust me?"

Axl nodded reluctantly. "I guess so."

"Then _trust_ me. There's a reason I didn't want Massimo at the initial briefing. Just go get him, and I'll brief you both in flight."

Axl nodded again, and took off to find the big reploid known as Steel Massimo.

* * *

"No sign of the Hunters, my lord." 

The man nodded, and gripped his beam saber more tightly. "What are you up to, X? Are you really so blind?"

"My lord? If I may?"

He nodded. "You may."

The other reploid gulped a bit, but settled quickly. "My lord… the process was slightly different this time. Sufficiently different that it may not have been picked up by the Hunters at all. When the technicians helped me improve the device, we also lessened the energy spike associated with it…"

He nodded. "So they might not have picked it up…" He sighed and sat himself down in a chair. "Well, I can't say I wasn't looking forward to another confrontation with my old friends, but, if that's the case then so be it. Our return to this reality will be just that much more spectacular for its surprise." He straightened in his seat. "Open the gate, and send the troops through. Tell them to prepare for my arrival."

The aide nodded. "Of course, my lord." The reploid scurried off.

A scant fifteen minutes later, he stepped through the portal, onto his new world. Far enough from his goal that he was virtually inaccessible but close enough to strike whenever he wanted. The same reploid from before approached him. "Stealth field in place, sir…"

"Atmospheric modifiers?"

"Almost complete sir. We haven't spread our influence _everywhere_, but we should have complete coverage by the end of the day. Gravitational generators are being put into play as fast as the changes allow."

He nodded. "Then everything is going to plan, I take it?"

The reploid nodded. The 'Lord' sighed and twirled the inactive saber in his hands for a moment. He could hardly gut the reploid for competence, but everything going right for once was putting him on edge. _Something_ had to be going wrong… it just had to. That was the way things went. "So absolutely nothing's wrong?"

The reploid nodded again, and eyed the saber nervously.

He brought the saber up… and sheathed it over his shoulder. His eyes brightened as he thought of something. "How about the hangers?"

"We can launch a few ships, sir, but we don't have the power generators up and running, so a fleet launch isn't advisable."

He nodded again. "I require a ship to be readied – one with stealth capabilities. I don't want to announce my presence just yet."

"You are leaving, sir?"

He nodded. "Yes… I require more informatation on this world. I'm going to check out the ruins of the last expedition. Who knows… there may be some... goodies left over."

His laughter billowed through the endless night, as he stalked off towards the hanger.


	2. Tripping

AN: Hey, you guys are awesome. I'm gonna try to get this one out at faster intervals than the first one. Here's hoping, eh?

Chapter 1 – Tripping

The white room was pristine and obviously hospital like in nature. Despite the number of beds though, there were only two people in the room, and only one occupied the bed.

Zero woke groggily, and attempted to sit up. His head swam at the effort, and he collapsed back down. The noise, however, attracted him some attention.

"Well, well. Sleeping beauty awakens." The same female voice from the desert.

Marino.

"Marino…? Why?" He tried to sit up again, but her hand snaked out and pushed him back down gently. _Wait… that's not her hand._

"Easy, soldier boy. You're still a little groggy." Zero followed the obviously human hand up the arm, until it ended in a seriously endowed chest, which he only lingered on momentarily before his gaze traced higher, ending at a face with blue eyes, and long, curled, grass green hair.

He blinked. The human had Marino's voice. She chuckled. "It's okay, Zero. I've just gone through a few changes."

He nodded slowly, accepting what she said without comment, still trying to get his head to clear. She noticed. "Yeah, sorry. Spider hit you with that destabilizer. You'll be out of it for about another fifteen minutes."

His mind choked on the name. "Spider…? Saw him… but…"

She nodded. "It's… complicated. Let's save it for when you can think straight. For now I'd better go tell the professor that you're awake."

Zero nodded, and lay back down on the bunk. He wasn't sure what was going on, but he vaguely promised himself that he'd get to the bottom of it.

* * *

In flight towards Gigantis Island, X briefed his crew. 

"Massimo, you weren't there with Signas, so I'll give you the brief version."

The massive heir to the true Steel Massimo nodded, and X continued. "Alright. The official story is that we've lost Zero on our scanners and that he, along with a few others have taken over Professor Gaudile's lab."

Massimo was on his feet in an instant, almost hitting his head in the cramped cabin. "Preposterous! Zero was… is a reploid of honor! He would never stoop to such a thing!"

X waved his arms frantically. "Massimo! Calm down! I know! I just said that it's the 'official' story."

Axl nodded from where he was reclined on a seat. "So what's _really_ happening?"

X sighed and sat down. "I hope you'll both forgive me for this, for not telling you earlier, but I felt that secrecy _had_ to be maintained.

"I'd been expecting what happened to Zero. I put all I had into trying to make people see reason, but in my heart I knew that we were kidding ourselves, so I sought to drag it out as long as possible, and made plans for the eventual." The look in his face hardened. "We do _not_ quit on our friends."

Axl and Massimo nodded.

"So I worked with Professor Gaudile on it. Axl… you may recall that I came back from another mission shortly before you joined us."

Axl thought for a moment. "Oh yeah! The official line was that you were fighting Sigma out in space or something. Zero told me you'd been fighting him in another reality, of all places."

Massimo looked confused. "So what does that have to do with now?"

X sighed. "I'm going back there, it was peaceful enough, and I'm taking Zero with me."

Axl's eyes widened. "As in never to return?"

X nodded. "Yeah. We're not going to be back."

"Does Zero know?"

X shook his head. "Not yet. Only Signas, Gaudile, Marino, Douglas and I knew… though I'm not sure if they told Cinnamon or not."

Massimo looked like he was struggling with something. "So what will happen?"

X shrugged. "You guys will come back and spread word of our tragic battle that ended in a huge explosion, neither of us ever to be seen again."

Massimo stiffened. "X… I wish to accompany you. You both were there for me in my hour of need, and I wish to be with you in yours."

Axl shook his head. "You can't Massimo. X only survived to come back because he could become human, you know, blend in, consume food for energy, that sort of th – how's Zero going to survive?"

"That's why I brought Gaudile in."

Axl's eyes narrowed. So he's making Zero human, too?"

X nodded. "Just like me."

Axl smiled. "Great! Where do Massimo and I sign up?"

X smiled. "Are you two sure about this?"

Axl nodded, and Massimo planted his fist into his palm. "Of course we are… hey, uh, X?"

"Yes?"

"What do we do about the pilot?"

In response, the door opened, and the pilot stepped through. Dressed in a mechanical Tuxedo with a red bat-like bowtie and a wide rimmed hat, he flashed a deck of cards between his fingers. They looked on, shocked.

"Spider!"

* * *

Zero, fully conscious now, sat in front of Professor Gaudile, who had pulled up another chair to the bed Zero was in. "It's great that X was thinking into the future like that. I think I'll enjoy myself. But would someone _please_ tell me why Spider's back? I thought we obliterated Redips when he launched us into space." 

The Professor looked at Marino and she sighed. "Fine. I'll do it.

"It was a little before the information about you being the devil's son came to light. X brought it to my attention first, though I'm ashamed to admit I didn't think of it myself.

It was tactically brilliant. When Spider sacrificed himself, we were so worried about getting out before the explosion went off that we didn't stop to think about collecting his processor."

Zero frowned. "Then what was the point of Redips disguising himself in the tower when we went after him?"

Professor Gaudile spoke up here.

"To throw you off balance was the most likely scenario. You see, I checked the records on the both of them when I hacked in and went looking for Spider's schematics. Redips was a newer model of the next generation reploids. He could use the Reploid DNA to disguise himself as another reploid like normal, but with the processor as well, he could use the DNA to override the protective measures on the processor to safely access the memories without the processor realizing what was really happening. So with that he could-"

Zero cut him off. "Spider fought with us. He knew our abilities fairly well, as well as how we'd react to certain situations."

The professor nodded, and Marino continued.

"The only problem was that Spider's Reploid DNA and processor were in a Repliforce evidence locker with what was left of that idiot. X hired me to get him out. I brought him back to the Professor here to be rebuilt."

Zero cocked an eyebrow. "You charged X?"

She grinned. "Sort of… the price was to come with you guys. Frankly, it's only a matter of time before some paparazi idiot realizes I'm a thief."

He nodded, and smiled. "Hey, the more the merrier, right?"

"And you're going to be okay with Spider coming along, _right_?"

"Why is he coming?"

She just stared at him. "Hello? Anyone in there? He'd be in the same goddamn mess you and I are in if he stayed."

Zero nodded frantically, and readdressed the professor to change the subject. "So, um… how does this human changer thingy work?"

Professor Gaudile smiled then, ignoring for the moment Zero's calling his machine a 'thingy'. "It's quite brilliant. It seems that the esteemed Dr. Light figured out how to make Force Metal before the meteor crashed down!"

"What?"

Gaudile nodded, smiling beatifically. "Yes! Its ability to influence machinery is what made X's conversion possible! What happened when X went into that last capsule was that his core was infused with Supra-Force Metal! But this Supra-Force Metal was imprinted with his human genetic sequence! The capsule walls came up to give the metal biological resources with which to work! He was literally swimming in primordial soup!"

Zero nodded slowly, as if it made sense to him. In truth he only understood a little of it. "So how did Marino…?"

Professor Gaudile waved his hand absently. "Bah! Decoding the human genome is an easy thing these days. I simply input the correct sequence for Marino's appearance into the Supra-Force Metal, and there it went!"

Zero nodded again, feeling a little overwhelmed. "You know how X's armor mutated? Any chance of that happening to the rest of us?"

Gaudile shrugged. "No idea, sadly. A controlled change _is_ possible, it's just the right combination of growth hormones, and can't be maintained long, that's where X's armors came from while he was on the island, but the permanent conversion of his outer shell? Either it was subconsciously how he _wanted_ to look, or some hidden programming of Dr. Lights. X personally is leaning towards it actually being the work of someone he calls 'Protoman', but I'm not sure why. He mumbled something about shades and scarves."

Zero just nodded again. _Hell with it._ "So, when do I go for that swim?"

"Just as soon as-"

He was cut off by the door opening, and a blond young woman in a nurse's outfit rushing in. "Professor!"

He sighed. "One moment Zero. Yes Cinnamon?"

"Douglas is finished in his tank, and Nana has only minutes left."

Professor Gaudile smiled. "That's wonderful news, Cinnamon, but you certainly know what to do from there."

She nodded, but remained. "Yes Professor, but you wished to know when X was arriving. I just got off the link with Spider, and they'll be here in a half hour. Axl and Massimo are going too."

He nodded. "Well then! I suppose we'd better get everything set for our departure!"

"You're coming with us?"

Gaudile smiled, and his form shifted to that of an older man, still short and fairly rotund, but with features distinguished and noble. He still had all his hair, gray though it was, and Zero snickered quietly to himself at the Professor's vanity. Gaudile either didn't hear him or ignored him, which was probably for the best. "Of course! I still don't want my research to fall into the wrong hands, and this is the ticket out."

* * *

Zero walked into the hanger and took a look around. It was relatively small for a hanger, at least compared to what he was used to with the Hunters. It looked like it wouldn't hold any more than five transport vessels, where as a Hunter hanger would hold fifteen to twenty. Scattered around through the other areas though, were other things, including… 

He grinned and rushed over to the other side of the hanger and examined the machine carefully. His custom land chaser. Fire truck red, flames etched into the side and a plasma blade built into the bottom to cut Mavericks in half when he went into a wheelie. It didn't have a cannon on it like the standard ones, but that didn't matter to him. He'd always liked it up close and personal.

He looked up then at the whine of the transport vessel carrying the rest of his friends came in. It wasn't all that sleek, looking more like a flying, futuristic semi, but it was certainly fast. Douglas came rushing in then, and with a nod to Zero, rushed over to the opening back hatch, while another door opened in the forward compartment. Spider exited, and Zero did his best to ignore the uncomfortable feeling in his stomach.

He smiled a little as X and Massimo helped Douglas, back in his reploid form, move the Hope II pod out of the transport's cargo hold. X nodded to him, but stayed concentrated on his task. Surprisingly, he found himself standing next to Spider, who had approached him when he wasn't looking.

"So…"

"Yeah."

Zero shuffled uncomfortably. Spider looked bored. Zero sighed. "Are we allowed to just forget what happened last time?"

Spider chuckled. "Sounds good to me. You play cards?"

Zero grinned. "Five card stud's what I'm best at. X can't bluff at all though, so I might be a bit rusty…"

Spider looked at him. "You're trying to con a card shark?"

Zero's grin got wider, and he chuckled. "It was worth a shot."

A pair of arms went over their necks and pulled them closer to a third person, Marino, who had come up behind them. "Great as it is to see the two of you getting along, the Professor's scheduled your 'baths' now. He has to work a little bit on getting Axl and Massimo's metals ready with their genomes. So go to it!"

Spider smirked a little. "Marino… are you propositioning two men at the same time?"

She whacked him in the back of the head, knocking his top hat askew. She winked at the two of them, and walked off. Zero shook his head while Spider straightened his hat. "Women."

Spider grunted, and the two left.

* * *

Axl came up to the top of his tank with a gasp, breaking the surface of the green fluid. 

It was an interesting experience being human, Axl decided. _X was right. Hormones are weird. Nothing like the old emotion drivers._

And Axl, naturally, had more hormones than the others because, and Zero kept laughing at him for this, his relative human age was calculated to seventeen. Swimming right at the height of puberty.

Axl didn't see why they couldn't have just brought his age up a little. So what if Cinnamon was a least going to pretend to be his age to? Girls were done with that sort of thing earlier than boys, everyone knew that… well, most reploids didn't, but who cared about that? He'd read up on the biology a little, considering what he was about to go through.

He covered his face with his hand. When he'd spouted off about that, Zero had laughed, and his unofficial title now was 'the hormone king'.

Thoughts of revenge flicked briefly through his head, but then a truly huge hand reached down and hauled him up by the arm and set him down outside the tank. He found himself looking up at the seven foot six massive form of the human side of Steel Massimo.

"Whoa."

He smiled. "Yes… it's most interesting, being human. But I see my frame size has decreased only slightly with the change." Then he blushed. "Did anyone tell you where we can find clothing?"

Axl realized he was completely in the buff as well, and blushed insanely.

Then both of them scrambled to hide behind the other as Cinnamon walked into the room.

* * *

The room was a little small compared to what you'd expect for Sigma's throne room. It had a little raised platform upon which his throne sat, a red carpet, and substandard lighting, just like he liked it. It was just that he liked more room for creeping shadows. The current level of lighting, that which allowed him to see to the doorways, left the room subdued, giving a somber mood, rather than the hey-what-was-that-noise-in-the-darkness mood. 

Sigma sat quietly on his throne, twiddling with the inactive hilt in his hands, contemplating expanding the room for the proper effect, when his primary aide, Palette, walked up with her clipboard again. He looked at her. "Well?"

She smiled. It was a little nervous, but it was a smile. "A success, my lord. It's had some… unintended side affects, though."

He arched an eyebrow. He didn't want anything going wrong, but a least a little worry would make things feel normal. But then… wasn't normal getting his ass kicked? That bore thought, but he brushed it away for later. Palette was continuing. "We have successfully integrated the second processor into Alia, giving her the memories of the clone we sent here the first time, but… well, she's not quite stable any more."

The eyebrow arched a little higher, and she took it as a sign to elaborate. "Well, the integration changed her perceptions of X…"

Sigma waved his hand in a vaguely circular motion, motioning for her to get on with it. He didn't feel like talking at the moment. Yes, he'd definitely have to do something about the atmosphere of the throne room. "She hates him now. She's still just as obsessed, and with a little time and luck she'll be able to contain it just as well as she used to, it's just now, she's concentrated on destroying him rather than converting him."

Sigma smiled approvingly. _Finaly_ he thought. _She's doing something sensible for a change. Hopefully she'll keep herself in line._

"The second processor has upped her thinking speed as well. Which I think is helping drive her over the edge. She mumbled something about revenge, and disappeared into her room. We haven't seen her since because we're a little reluctant to blow the door."

Sigma grimaced. "Okay. Wait another couple of days, and if she isn't out by then, then blow the door. Let's see if she comes out of it by herself. If she does, tell her to report to me immediately."

Palette looked at him, a little surprised. Sigma continued his grimace. "Look… let's try not to upset the now unstable design genius too much. Who knows what she'd build in response. This way whatever it is is likely to be targeted at the Hunters instead of us.

Palette nodded, and Sigma continued. "Anything else?"

She shrugged. "Not too much. Just that the dimensional gate modifiers for the eventual trip home are finally in place. We can move the whole asteroid through now without trouble if we need to."

He nodded. "Okay. Fire them up for a few seconds, just to make sure they work."

* * *

A part of Gaudile's lab had been converted to what resembled the bridge of the starship enterprise, but done in matted grays. Gaudile waddled in and into the center chair, X on his left, Zero on his right. Nana and Douglas were in the two forward chairs, and the others were crowded around behind. Gaudile grinned. "Okay, Nana, fire up the dimensional gate, and move us through." 

There was a mixing of red and purple lines of energy in front of them, and the structure began rumbling. Zero got a funny look on his face. "Douglas… does the lab _fly_ now? Trees and all?"

He could hear the grin. "Yes."

Zero paused as the lines of power began to form a black void. "It's got to be a weird looking ship then."

Douglas nodded. "Yeah. A big dome with trees sticking out the top. But it flies!"

Nana cut them off as she started typing frantically on her console. "Hate to interrupt… but things are _not_ going according to plan."

Gaudile straightened. "Report!"

Despite the situation, Zero couldn't help but smile at Gaudile. _Probably likes to think of himself as Picard._ The smile faded at Nana's answer.

"There's another signal coming through the other way!"

X was up out of his seat. "So what's happening?"

Nana kept typing. "It's stronger than our signal so it's overriding our destination input! We're going to the same dimentional plane, just in a different area!"

Spider cut in. "So much for an easy trip… Where're we going to come out?"

A little more typing by Nana. "One of the larger masses in the asteroid belt…"


	3. Situation Report

Chapter 2 – Situation Report

The silver haired reploid stood on top of a building as sirens blared and the minor worker 'ploids ran around in sheer terror. He swore as he watched what appeared to be a dome with trees sticking up out of it came through, weaving like a drunken sailor.

Couldn't _anything_ ever go right for Sigma?

Then Dynamo, for that was the reploid's name, grinned as a familiar presence reached out to him from the ship. _He's here._

He let out a whoop and drew his beam staff as the thing plummeted towards the asteroid. This promised to be fun.

* * *

The reploids of the SS Gaudile's Laboratory could only watch as they crashed towards the large asteroid. Nana decided to provide them with _more_ good news. "Uh… guys… those are _Maverick_ reploid signals down there…"

Marino provided the witty retort for that one. "Great. So if the fall doesn't kill us, Sigma's lackeys will."

"Not if we kill them first."

Everyone looked over at Zero, who blinked. "What?"

Douglas spoke up from his console. "Got it!"

They all looked at him, but what he 'got' soon became clear. The ship stabilized, and managed to crash only with a slight bump on what seemed to be a landing strip from the external monitors. X was on his feet in an instant. "Okay. Nana, seal all the entry points, then help Douglas. Douglas, Gaudile, get this thing ready to lift off as soon as possible. Everyone else… get to said sealed entrances, and hold them for when the mavericks break through."

They went running.

* * *

Zero was smiling brightly. What had originally promised to be a somewhat boring, if peaceful, retirement had turned into something rather enjoyable. A full out battle with some Mavericks. Best of all there were no interruptions this time. No hostages, no traitors, just him, his comrades, and the enemy.

Life was sweet.

He started whistling a jaunty tune as he reached his breach point, shared with Marino. He smirked at her as he leaned against the wood like wall. She noticed. "What?"

His smirk didn't fade. "Nothing. I just find it curious that despite the fact that I'm supposedly the only one actually looking forward to this, you managed to beat me down here."

She glared. "I'm faster than you."

He snorted. "Not _that_ much faster. And your QAS (Quicksilver Acceleration System as apposed to the normal Emergency Acceleration System, my version of the game's power up) needs a while to recharge. I admit I wasn't exactly running though. Which makes me wonder about _your_ fighting enthusiasm."

Marino opened her mouth to counter him, but then the sealed entrance buckled with the distinctive sound of buster shots, and warrior and thief got ready for combat.

* * *

Axl grimaced and readied his blasters as the door in front of him sizzled as a beam started cutting through it. It was ironic, really. This was a small access hatch, not like the front and side doors. It shouldn't have garnered much notice, but sure enough, here it was being steadily cut through.

He spared a glance backwards at Cinnamon who nervously fidgeted with her gloves. He sent her a small smile, then returned his attention to the door.

With a final shower of sparks, the door hissed open revealing a reploid with silver hair and a mostly black body suit. He carried a beam staff in one hand, both beams fully active.

Dynamo grinned. "Well, well, well. What do we have here, the shrimp squad?"

Axl didn't reply with words, he simply opened fire, dodging to the side as he did so, both blasters shots being deflected wide by Dynamo's staff. "Really, now did you actually expect that to work? Three maverick uprisings and still green. Tsk, tsk. Now I know that you never fought anyone nearly as great as I am before, but still! You should-"

Clank!

Dynamo was temporarily shut up by Cinnamon's fist in his face. It didn't seem to affect him much, though, as the taller reploid gripped her by the throat and lifted. He arched an eyebrow. "Then again, considering the level of the competition, you're a genius, boy."

"Shut up!" Axl had had enough. He brought up both blasters and fired off a few concise shots, one blaster knocking the staff from his free hand, the other sending its own shots at Dynamo's face.

After the second shot to knock his staff away, and the first to his face, Dynamo tossed Cinnamon away, and ducked and rolled for his staff.

Coming up with it deflecting Axl's shots, he purposely deflected a few into Cinnamon, making sure she stayed down, and further angering Axl in the process. "Damn you!"

Dynamo grinned as he got what he wanted. Axl charged, despite the fact that he was more effective at a distance.

Swinging his beam staff around, Dynamo knocked Axl's arms wide, sending his blasters flying. Dynamo dropped his staff, and like he had with Cinnamon earlier grabbed Axl by the neck, only this time he swung Axl around, slamming him into one of the psuedo wood walls.

Axl, stunned momentarily, could only groan as Dynamo leaned his head close to Axl's ear. "Now… let's open you up and find that gooey cream filling."

A moment later, everything went black.

* * *

X stood with Spider and Massimo in front of the main entrance. All three were exhausted, but functional. X frowned as another wave came pouring at them. He gave off a glowing lightshow, and when he was finished he floated from the lift generated by the disk on his back.

His Ultimate Armor was mostly white in color, with prongs shooting off from the sides and top of his face back, a green targeting screen materialized into place over his tight eye, and both arms morphed into truly frightening looking guns. In addition, a domed disk was horizontally suspended from his back by a connection brace. It generated true anti-gravity, making it a marvel in a world where flight was fairly common. A directional fin the length of his body jutted out from the connection brace, combined with two boost jets. Three smaller boosters morphed into place underneath each of his now white and red feet.

X noted that his auxiliary reserves were fading fast, and he wouldn't be able to hold the form long. He had to make it count. "Spider, Massimo, out of the way!"

They looked back at him, then scattered out of the way as X proceeded to open fire on everything in his path, eliminating the entire wave in under a minute.

Then he collapsed back to the ground and he felt his armor shift back into its usual configuration. He gritted his teeth and set his buster's charge function to barrage mode, and started powering it up. If he got lucky, they'd be able to take another wave without too much effort, but their weapons energy was running dry, and soon they'd be forced to siphon energy directly from their cores - not a smart move, but if they got desperate…

He opened his com-link. "Nana, how long until we can lift off?"

He heard the pink-haired spotter's voice come back. "Not too long now. Another two minutes at most."

X nodded, and refocused outside the doorway. His stunt with the armor looked as if it had rattled them a little. Hopefully they'd only be able to charge one more time before Gaudile and the others got the ship back online. He wasn't stupid enough to believe they wouldn't be able to do at least _that_.

* * *

Zero danced backwards away from Vile's shot, sword in a defensive position. He didn't dare try and look to see how Marino was doing, the Maverick in front of him would easily capitalize on that kind of mistake.

Still, she was doing well enough, given the fact that he could hear her cursing like a sailor (she tended to tone it down around Cinnamon) and he hadn't been blindsided by any of the less dangerous reploids.

Jumping up close to Vile again, he gave his EAS a small tap, allowing him to seem to 'jump' in mid air, sailing over Vile's head. Twisting around before Vile could react, he gave the again purple reploid ("Pick a color, would you!") several sword strokes to the back before he dashed back under the protective dome of the ship.

Vile dove after him, spraying out shots, which Zero dodged or deflected to the best of his ability. It was almost comical to watch the blast doors suddenly slam closed, followed instantaneously by the slamming noise of Vile introducing his helmet to it. Zero then felt the ship rumble and lift off, removing any likelihood that the battle would soon resume.

He switched his left hand into its buster mode and idly picked off one of the last of the mass produced drones that was bugging Marino. She glared at him, but said nothing as the entire ship shook _again_ and their systems were temporarily overloaded.

Zero tried shifting into his human form to compensate, but that just made him sick to his stomach. So, in human fashion, he emptied the contents right onto Marino.

She didn't glare at him, or try to kill him, but that was mostly because that was when a second wave of it them, and they both passed out.

* * *

Axl groaned quietly and got up. Or at least he tried to. He found that he wasn't strong enough to do it.

The noise, however, attracted quite a bit of attention, and he suddenly had everyone in the room trying to surround his bed, including Douglas, Massimo, Cinnamon and Gaudile.

"Knock it off!"

Axl almost moaned his relief as Zero herded them all out the door, but held it knowing that it would make them crowd him again. _Good timing Zero._

Zero himself walked up to the bed. "How are you?"

Axl shrugged, about all he could manage at the moment. "Been better… How long was I out?"

"A few days longer than the rest of us. We were pretty worried there for a bit, kid. Speaking of which, what happened? We had to put you into stasis for a while."

"Dynamo."

Zero nodded. "We got that from Cinnamon. But why didn't he do anything to you?"

Axl blinked. "Wha?"

Zero shrugged. "Gaudile said he couldn't find anything wrong with you other than Dynamo went to a lot of trouble to pry your forehead crystal off. And then he left it there on the ground for us to find. Not only that, but then he left you alone and sealed the exit after he left. No idea why he'd do that?"

Axl shook his head. "He said something about - cream filling?"

Zero blinked, then sighed. "Well, with that nut job that could mean anything, even just him gloating that he can do it and we weren't able to stop it." He gripped Axl's shoulder amiably. "Get some rest."

He made to stand, but Axl stopped him. "Zero? We okay?"

Zero grimaced. "Are we going to die soon? No. But… a little after Dynamo knocked you out, we lifted off - and smacked our dimension-thingy into the Maverick's dimension-thingy. So we don't know where we are, other than that we're in a forest. Nana and X are going over the data now."

* * *

A couple of hours later, everyone, including the slightly groggy Axl, gathered on the 'bridge'. Nana spoke first. "Okay, we've got good news, bad news, and worse news."

Spider, in human form, fiddling with his top hat, responded. "The good news?"

She shrugged. "We're in the same dimension still, on Earth, and the human authority figures aren't likely to notice us too soon. We came down with a bunch of other asteroid debris."

Something about that didn't sound right to Axl, but he let it pass. It nagged at him though.

"The bad news is that we've been flung about a thousand or so years into the future, so I'm not sure how long it will be before someone does pick us up on some kind of scanner."

It came to Axl then. "Wait… isn't this government going to want to clean up the asteroid strike?"

Nana grimaced. "That's the worse news. Apparently the Mavericks have been active for about a year now. They pulled the asteroid out of the belt and flung it at the capital city. They blew it out of the sky…"

X finished. "But they've got too much on their plates right now to worry about the fragments, even us, and according to the news feeds, we're the closest, and largest piece to come down. We're about two hundred miles south of the capital."

Zero grunted, mostly serious as he was in all semi-combat situations. "What country's capital?"

X shrugged. "The planet's capital apparently. The city is Tokyo, actually."

"Hmm," went Nana, going over her notes. "They call it Crystal Tokyo officially, but most still refer to it the old way. They have control of pretty much the entire planet, minus the Maverick controlled areas."

Marino sighed. "Are we in any danger where we are?"

X shook his head. "No. The government does have control over all of Japan, but the Mavericks do make raids."

Zero nodded to himself. "And for raids they'd go directly into the population centers. We'll be ignored - until they know we're here."

X nodded. "Likely. It seems that the humans have recently developed the firepower they need to defend themselves, unfortunately do to a lack of it earlier, the population's down to about one billion."

Nana shook her head. "I think whatever that 'great freeze' was killed off more than the Mavericks really have. The plants have had too much time to reclaim the ruins of the old cities from what the sensors can tell me."

X cocked his head. "Very possible. Either way, they lack the sheer manpower to take back the territory the Mavericks have taken."

Spider looked up from his hat again. "No matter what happens, someone's going to investigate this area eventually. How fast can we leave?"

Douglas fielded this one. "Not very. We'd have to dismantle every bit of the lab and transport it. I don't think that's going to be possible without someone noticing. And they'll definitely notice if we try to lift off."

"Well…" They all turned to look at Gaudile. "What if we bought the land? Then no one could trespass, right?"

The group did a blink. X responded. "How?"

Gaudile shrugged. "Well, you mentioned appropriating some money the last time you were here, right? Well, it's got to be there somewhere."

X nodded slowly. "I suppose… but wouldn't I have been declared dead by now? The money absorbed by the bank or something?"

Gaudile rolled his eyes. "And who would have known you to declare you dead? You told everyone you moved away, right? It's probably buried, but it's still likely there, and who knows what the interest has done to it?"

Marino nodded slowly. "Yeah… and with the war going on, there's not going to be too many people keeping their eyes on an account that's been dormant that long. It's worth a shot."

X sighed. "All right. I guess we've got a tentative plan. But that money won't support all of us forever. We're going to need a way to make more."

Gaudile grinned again. "Weeeell, I could reopen my lab as a company. I don't imagine a robotics firm would be too popular these days, but I'd imagine we could sell _something_."

Nana nodded. "I can start hacking government records after we're done here and set up a solid company history."

X shrugged. "Okay then. I'll head out tomorrow in my human form to check out the situation regarding my money and the buying real estate. Speaking of which, unless you're in a fight, keep out of your reploid forms. We don't need them sensing us. Briefing adjourned."

* * *

X walked down the streets of Crystal Tokyo, fully feeling like Rock Light for the first time since he'd left before. The air, he'd noted, was quite a bit cleaner. Behind him, in clothes that fit passably well, but not completely, was Zero, or as he'd chosen to be called, Zachary Wily (Well, he'd wanted to be Alexander 'Zander' Wily, but Axl beat him in the coin toss for the name).

"So… this is Tokyo… It's… nice, I guess. I'd expected it to be… different."

Rock nodded. "I know what you mean."

'Zack' looked at him curiously. "You've been here before, right?"

Rock rolled his eyes. "A thousand years ago. I'd expected the tech level to be… well, closer to home, really. And look around you. Fashion's barely changed since I left. You'd expect that kind of thing to have changed in that much time, unless it's some creepy lucky coincidence that everything I had is now suddenly back in style again."

"So… what're you getting at here?"

"Something's going on, and I'd bet it has something to do with that 'great freeze' mentioned in the news. Probably something everyone else considers common knowledge. Hmm. Give me a minute. I see an ATM."

Zack shrugged, and they approached the machine. Rock slid his card in, punched in the numbers and thirty seconds later had three hundred yen cash and a statement showing him with more than a million dollars. They looked at each other. "Well… that was easy."

Zack rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Can I get something of my own to wear with that? Or at least some shoes? These are seriously cramping my feet."

Rock nodded and handed Zack the majority of the cash. "Sure. While you do that, I'm going to go try to figure out how to purchase land."

* * *

Minako Aino wandered down the street in 'disguise'. This meant that she was wearing sunglasses and had her hair all piled up underneath her hat. Wearing a white blouse with an orange skirt, she was as incognito as she could be for one of the rulers of the world.

Of course it helped that no one really believed that one of the 'Queens of Crystal Tokyo' would mingle with the 'simple mortals', and simply thought she looked somewhat similar to 'Lady Venus'. Heck, most people didn't even react abnormally to her given name these days, which was both a blessing and a curse.

Musing on this, she didn't quite notice when she bumped into someone. With a startled 'oof' she went down, but was quickly caught in the person's reflexes.

"Whoops… sorry."

Looking at the man, she liked what she saw. Tall, well muscled but not overly bulky, he was wearing a red short sleeved t-shirt tucked into black jeans. Crystal blue eyes and blond hair just as long as hers bound into a loose ponytail.

What she didn't like was that he was studying her, looking a little confused. _This is my day off! If he recognizes me, I'm screwed!_

She quickly righted herself. "It's fine, really, but I'm in a little bit of a hurry, so if you'll excuse me…"

The man nodded. "Sure…"

* * *

Zack was sitting in an open-air café still puzzling over the strange energy readings he'd gotten from that girl, obviously human, when Rock found him a little later. He glanced up at his friend's approach. "Well? What's the word?"

Rock shrugged. "Easier than expected. With the war going on, the government isn't exactly pushing for people to redevelop the land, but it's still exceedingly cheap."

Zack nodded. They'd expected something like that when they talked about it with the others. "And?"

Rock shrugged. "It's ours. Or rather it's officially the new home of Gaudile Laboratories, Inc. With a grant from yours truly."

Zack nodded. "So, are we still financially solvent with said grant?"

Rock nodded. "Yes, but I expect that will change rather suddenly, even if the relative value of yen has shot up by a factor of one hundred."

"Oh?"

"The girls will need to go shopping as well."

"Ouch."


	4. Your Mission

Chapter 3 – Your Mission (if you choose to accept it…)

Alex 'Axl' Wily was not enjoying his assignment. Being Zer-_Zack_'s little brother was cool, but the rest of it sucked. They'd spent a week getting Gaudile Industries and their backgrounds established. They were a small but elite robotics firm recently changing locations from what used to be America. They all had official positions in the company, even himself and Cindy 'Cinnamon' Gaudile (interns). His problem though, was that he was still 'school-age', and as the term suggested, he was required to attend classes. X and Zero had tried to call it bodyguard duty, as the 'Moon Queen' had her only daughter enrolled there as well, but if it really was bodyguard duty, then why couldn't he just hang out on campus, not really attending?

Cinnamon was with him and that was something, but why couldn't he have gotten a cool assignment? Nana got to surf the Internet, trying to figure out just 'what's wrong here', as X put it. X was working on trying to find an in road to the human government, which might have been boring if these 'Queens' weren't hot girls. Zero, Massimo, Spider and Marino were 'patrolling'. This usually consisted of Zero attempting to teach Massimo how to 'pick up chicks'. Spider would laugh; Marino would alternately rip on Zero or smack him. A good time. The Professor and Douglas were coming up with a product line to sell. Axl had a passing interest in mechanics! He could help with that! No petty girls, but it couldn't be helped…

Axl mentally retraced his train of thought and fought the urge to smack himself. _Hormone King indeed_, he thought as he and Cinna… Cin_dy_ reached the classroom door.

Cindy looked at him for a moment. When it became evident that Alex wasn't going to knock on his own, holding his head and groaning like that, she knocked for them, effectively snapping him out of it. Axl straightened up, just in time for the door to open, revealing a dark haired man who appeared to be in his early thirties. He smiled at them, and bade them enter.

This was gonna suck, he just knew it.

---

Alex discretely hid his borrowed history book inside his math book and quickly thumbed through the pages, speed-reading.

It was necessary, he'd told his classmate in a semi-frantic whisper, because math was the same everywhere. History was not, though, and he would rather not make a fool of himself. His answer being deemed satisfactory, he turned to the back and began to read up on recent history.

Recent history, he discovered, went back twenty years or so before it more or less matched what he remembered of the twentieth century back home.

And… there it was. It only occupied a few sentences near the bottom of one page, but it told him everything he needed to know. The 'Great Freeze' was an ice age - one thousand or so years long.

Wow. They'd tossed around a lot of ideas, from freaky coincidence to time distortion connected to their own jump, but that had certainly never come up. It looked like they were incredibly lucky not to have shown up in the middle of that.

The building shook then, interrupting his train of thought.

**WARNING! WARNING!**

**MAVERICK SIGNATURE DETECTED!**

**MAVERICK SIGNATURE DETECTED!**

**WARNING! WARNING!**

Alex's eye twitched. _Yeah. A little late there._ He knew that kind of shake. They were under attack. He spared a glance at Cindy, and motioned for her to stay. He'd check it out. While everyone was rushing for the windows to see what happened, he slipped out the door.

He ran for the roof, and banged open the door, looking down to see who the perpetrator was. He blinked. He knew that reploid. Well, of him.

Bolt Bobcat was a racing reploid. He was a bright yellow color with little black lightning bolts all over, looking more like a cheeta than a bobcat in all honesty. He also had a huge rocket booster on his back. Fast, but not the strongest thing in the world. _So who pumped up his voltage?_ Bolt Bobcat was throwing around enough electricity to do serious damage to even someone like himself or Zero.

"Hey!"

Alex spun around to see what was perhaps the most hysterical thing he'd seen since Zero got drunk and started hitting on women in a reploid lesbian biker bar.

Pink hair in a really weird design, leotard with a mini-skirt, matching gloves and boots. The only thing that kept him from laughing out loud was the diagnostic his inner computer was giving him about her power levels.

If he'd known he'd done better than X his first time seeing this, he'd have been proud.

Oblivious to his narrowly contained laughter, the girl continued. "What are you doing up here?! Get into the shelter immediately!"

Seeming to think she'd be obeyed without question, she ran past him to the roof, pink hair flying. Standing in what he could only assume she thought was a dramatic pose, she yelled.

"Schools are for learning, you ugly hunk of garbage! I am Sailor Moon, and in the name of the moon, I'll punish you!"

Then she jumped off the roof. Alex ran for the roof and looked down, pretty sure he wasn't going to see her go splat, but wanting to see what she'd do next.

"Pink Spiral Heart Attack!"

Alex's eyes widened and he shook his head as he watched the giant pink heart fly out of her scepter.

Too bad Bolt Bobcat wasn't there to receive it. He had run behind her and backhanded her across the lawn.

Alex swore and jumped down, shifting to Axl and activating his jets to slow his fall as he went.

---

Reenie was not feeling too good at the moment. The giant metal yellow catperson had knocked her around something silly. She mentally reminded herself that she didn't have anyone watching her back at the moment like her mother had, and rolled over, just in time to see the new boy in her class, Alex Wily, jump off the roof.

Her eyes bulged a bit, and she wished she had Mercury's old computer, as he seemed to blur momentarily, a metallic exoskeleton replacing his school uniform. Small wings popped out of his back, and small jets fired, suspending him momentarily.

This attracted the cat's attention.

Her eyes widened as he backed up a step. "NO!"

Alex, or at least who she thought was Alex, grinned. "That's right Maverick. A hunter." Twin pistols appeared in his hands. "Bolt Bobcat, prepare to be retired."

The jets cut suddenly, and he dropped the rest of the way to the ground, letting off several shots as he went.

Shaking off the pain for the moment, Reenie got to her feet and pulled up her scepter again. "Pink Spiral Heart Attack!"

She grinned as this time her attack hit, but dropped the grin as it only seemed to momentarily stagger the thing. More shots raining down from the front the other robot's position reminded it that he had another foe. He made a fake lunge for Alex(?) but jumped him and kept going, activating the booster rocket as he went.

He was swearing as she got there, and brought an arm up to chest level.

"Axl to Nana. I've just stared down Bolt Bobcat. I'm not gonna be fast enough to chase him down. Any chance I'm getting back up?"

A hologram of a girl with short hair the color of her own projected out of the arm. "Unfortunately no. While that's been going on, Sigma's launched a full assault on the city's main gate. We're having a hard enough time just trying to keep the line intact while avoiding being shot by the humans."

"Damn."

The girl shrugged, and Reenie was starting to get the idea that these were good robots. Amy had mentioned they existed, but they hadn't seen any to date. The girl on the screen continued.

"The only good news I can offer is that the fight at the gate has brought down the teleport screen. I'll send your landchaser. Nana out."

A bright beam of light shot down out of the sky next to them and formed a bubble, which popped, revealing a futuristic motorcycle. Axl hopped on, and Reenie hopped on behind him. He looked back. "What are you _doing?_"

She smiled. "Going with you, _Alex_."

Axl fought an urge to start swearing. _X is gonna kill me…_ "Fine. I don't have time to argue."

Their speed was rather… impressive as they took off, but they were only barely gaining on Bolt Bobcat. The giant metal cat looked behind at them, then turned and picked up the pace.

Axl gritted his teeth. "Damn coward. Hang on." Axl hit the accelerator, and the chase was on.

---

Zero hit his EAS hard in the air, throwing himself forward. As he went his Z-saber swished around him slicing cleanly through the aerial attack mechanaloids.

Landing, he absently deflected two shots by humans behind him, redirecting them into a mass produced reploid, which detonated. He ignored it as a bit of the maverick virus was absorbed by his systems and relegated to his weapons energy. This was probably the only thing he liked about being the original carrier of the virus – he'd beaten it, and it couldn't hurt him anymore, no matter how many times it mutated.

He noted a blurred form to his left, followed by a trail of decimated robots, signature of Marino's QAS. To his right, waves were flung back, a testament to the sheer strength of Steel Massimo, while Spider sniped from behind them with explosive cards.

Zero grinned as he sliced through more mechanaloids. This would be a good day if only the humans would stop shooting at him.

"WORLD SHAKING!"

Zero jumped, then jumped again in the air for good measure as a large, golden globe shot right down where he'd been standing, moving over maverick reploids and mechanaloids like a giant bowling ball. Gripping a wall he'd flung himself up next to hand enough to dig in, he glanced at his aggressor, and was mildly surprised to find that it was a decently pretty girl in a leotard, wielding a sword. He arched an eyebrow when the soldiers near her started chanting 'Sailor Uranus'.

His hand whipped out with the Z-Saber to deflect a shot from another flying maverick, and he grinned and jumped back into the fray.

---

Axl was fuming as the chase continued. They'd narrowly avoided three accidents, and it was only by an aerial mapping of the city and a certain amount of luck that he and 'Sailor Moon' hadn't lost their target.

Axl's eyes narrowed. "Landchaser. Target Lock. Engage Autopilot."

The grip on his waist tightened a bit. "What're you doing?"

Axl grinned, and broke her grip before hopping up so that he was standing on the seat as the bike weaved furiously in and out of traffic. "What I should have done in the first place."

Axl concentrated, focusing on the right program, leveled his side arm and fired, just before jumping off the bike. The shot hit the fleeing Bolt Bobcat directly between the shoulder blades, then homed back in on him.

Reenie turned around sharply, watching the reflected shot crash into the robot that was her classmate. She wondered briefly just why he'd commited suicide, when her glowed and changed shape. Just as soon as it had begun, the glow faded, to reveal an exact duplicate of the reploid the bike was still chasing.

Axl, now in Bolt Bobcat form, surged forward, right up behind the original and pelted him with a lightning bolt, sending Bolt straight into a construction sight they were about to pass.

Axl rushed in afterwards and sent another concentrated lightning bolt into Bolt Bobcat's booster rocket, destroying it. This drained the last of his transformative energy, however, and he shifted back into Axl just as the landchaser pulled to a stop behind him.

Sailor Moon hopped off the futuristic motorcycle and rushed over to him. "Are you crazy? What were you thinking-oof!"

Axl tackled her out of the way as a lightning bolt flowed through where they'd been standing only moments before. "Save it, would you?"

Bolt Bobcat was back on his feet, but he'd definitely looked better.

He was blackened and burned, with sparks leaping out from the space where the booster had been. Axl rolled off his ally and to his feet with a grim smile on his face. Bolt wouldn't be able to out run him, not against the landchaser anyway, which meant that Bolt Bobcat was effectively trapped.

---

X bashed another minor mechanaloid out of his way, as he dashed and dodged his way into the thick of the fight. He was currently using his X-Fire armor, as with all the excess weapons energy floating around, he could maintain it virtually indefinitely, as opposed to the extremely inefficient 'Ultimate' Armor.

The X-Fire Armor was a gold and black construction with oversized shoulder guards, a golden pronged helmet, and another massive golden claw in the place of his buster, which charged with electricity, or released a smaller electric shot.

X's eyes widened a bit as he caught sight of a familiar blob of blue dancing around with several other colors- _No. Make that _two_ familiar blobs of blue._

The first was, as he suspected, Sailor Mercury, having found out about the ice age followed by Serena waking up and healing the world, but the other…

What in the world was a copy of his old exoskeleton doing there?

As it caught sight of him, the copy X smirked, fired a few shots into Mercury, and teleported out.

The rest of the mavericks quickly followed, leaving the mechanaloids behind.

As the mechanaloids dwindled and the Sailor Scouts turned to face him, X made his decision.

"All Hunters, return to base!"

He teleported out. He needed more intel before doing anything else.

---

"Going to come quietly, maverick?"

Bolt Bobcat whimpered, but pulled a sickly purple glowing vial out of a slot on his leg, and then shoved it into a port that momentarily opened on his chest. Bolt Bobcat glowed that same sickly purple, and when it faded, his bright yellow patches had changed to match the color.

Axl winced. "Why do I get the feeling that this isn't a good sign?"

Beside him, Sailor Moon groaned. "Concentrated negative energy – I could feel it. He'll be stronger."

Axl grumbled, but started moving, going for his guns. He fired out a few shots, but Bolt Bobcast was plenty fast enough on his feet to dodge easily, even if he couldn't out race the landchaser at this point. Cursing, Axl really wished he had Zero or Marino backing him up on this one.

Sailor Moon wasn't exactly idle as Axl took off firing, but recognized that until they managed to trap this guy, there wasn't much that her slow, but powerful attacks could do at this point. Glancing around, she tried to find some way to help, and let a mischievous grin come to her face as she spotted to the wrecking ball.

Axl was doing his best to dodge, but had taken a few hits regardless. Neither stopped at the engine starting up, Bolt Bobcast in the process of throwing one of those hyper charged purple-black lightning bolts, but both did stop at the high pitched whistling noise, given that it sounded rather like a bomb dropping.

The wrecking ball smashed into Bolt Bobcat, sending him flying into a pile of I beams. Axl looked warily at the passenger compartment of the machine to see Reenie giving him a broad grin. Another lighting bolt sailed in, striking the wrecking ball and turning it into shrapnel. In the cabin, Sailor Moon ducked down as the window shattered, while Axl jumped into the air and used his hover jets to stay above the situation.

Just before he cut them again, he noted to his satisfaction that the wrecking ball had done a superb job of mangling one of Bolt Bobcat's legs, severely limiting his mobility. Axl grinned and hit the ground running, most of his shots hitting right on the mark this time.

"Pink Spiral Heart Attack!"

The giant pink heart slammed into Bolt, and seemed to do serious damage not just to the reploid, Axl noted, but his sensors also picked up that greater damage had been done to this 'negative enery'.

The battle was pretty much won at this point. Axl kept dodging and firing, distracting Bolt and doing a decent amount of damage, and Sailor Moon hit him with another giant heart, ending the fight.

Axl dismissed his landchaser, now knowing that it wouldn't be needed, and shifted back to human form. "Well, that sucked. Less than a day and my cover's blown." He eyed Reenie carefully, as she too returned to the status of mere mortal. "You gonna tell anyone?"

She looked at Axl for a long, long, moment. Then she smiled. "Nah. Somehow, I don't think they'd understand."

_Well, that's one thing off my mind._ "So, what now?" He questioned.

Reenie gave a fake gag. "Ugh. Back to school. On the way we'll have to come up with a cover story for your absence."

Axl rubbed his chin as they started walking back. For all the speed of the chase, they hadn't really gone far, or more accurately, had come nearly full circle. "I think X buried himself in some rubble once."

She shook her head. "No way. There'll be rescue workers all over the school by now."

Axl waved his hand dismissively. "It'll be fine. I'll just slip into chameleon mode." He took in her clueless look and elaborated. "It's what happens if a generation two reploid tries to transform without having and CyberDNA to work with. A low level invisibility. Not truly undetectable, just difficult."

"I see." Reenie commented, a little jealous. There were a lot of days _she_ wished she could be invisible. Especially with the media circus that would also be waiting at the school.

When they got within a few blocks of the school, they stopped to go their separate ways. The princess smiled at Axl. "See you tomorrow?"

Axl grinned. "Count on it."

Maybe this assignment wasn't so bad after all.


End file.
